Superannuation

The submissions of the Australian Federal Government that the Workplace Relations Act 1996, amended by the Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Act 2005 was constitutionally valid prevailed with a majority of 5:2 by the High Court of Australia.1 This High Court decision inaugurated a shift of legislative power from the States to the Commonwealth.2 Since officially coming into effect as of 27 March 2006, the Work Choices Act has been the most comprehensive reformation in Australia in nearly a century, constantly sparking matters of controversy. 3

Due to financial constraints, employer-sponsored pension plans have evolved from being primarily defined benefit pensions (to which employees do not have to contribute their own monies) to

Commonwealth Government, Budget Paper No 3: Australia’s Federal Relations, 2009-10, 12 May 2009, p 7.

The group project, Macmillan and Grunski Consulting, consists of two sections. The first part explains the case about discounted cash flow analysis, by answering the given nine questions. The second part discusses the retirement planning.

One key initiative for the Federal Budget of 2014/15 is the ‘Deficit Levy’ that will effect over 400 000 of Australia’s high-income earners. From 1 July 2014 until 30 June 2017, the Temporary Budget Repair Levy will

In conclusion, Income security has had insignificant change however the introduction of compulsory superannuation’s are steps forward in trying to provide adequate standard of livings through privatisation. There are conflicting views over such policies as not everyone has benefited. Australia will always have some level of unfairness between our social sectors, however the main benefiters of the superannuation guarantee and the age entitlement to access pensions seems to be the already well-off sectors. Perhaps a way to avoid this is to increase

In this view governments are small, protectors of individual choice and focussed on the wealth creation that will trickle down to the more vulnerable. This Strategy was commissioned by the State Government but it only has some of the policy levers to tackle cost of living. Income support is a Australian Government matter as are most of the macroeconomic levers influencing the cost of living. Also taxation revenues are dominated by the Australian Government, and state taxation accounts for only a small proportion of total government revenues. Nevertheless there are goods and services over which the State Government has some control of pricing policy. Within these constraints, the Strategy focuses on feasible options for the State Government to pursue. The aim is to identify a framework and set of actions that can be delivered in the context of an already tight State Budget. This is especially important given that the State's revenue base is already largely regressive, that is the poor pay relatively more. In times of fiscal constraint where State Government departments and Government Business Enterprises (GBEs) are to find savings, they often turn to strategies, which are also regressive. In recent months we have witnessed an array of responses by departments and GBEs designed in part to improve their bottom lines. These responses include increases to user charges such as public housing rents and adult education fees,

The recent Guardian newspaper’s investigation published on March 2016 studying the disposable income growth of generations also points out the Australian exception. Using LIS data, The Guardian’s journalists show Australia to be the only country in which individuals aged between 25 and 29 have experienced income gains between 1980 and 2015. Australia’s economic performance have also scarcely equaled in developed countries, boasting a decreasing unemployment rate of 5.5% in July 2016 only 1.5% higher than the 2008 record low of 4% (ABS).

4 Statistics Canada has utilized a computer model for the purpose of gaining retirement readiness information from households. This model calculates the net replacement ratio, which is further compared with disposable income once the person has reached retirement, as well as preretirement. The replacement ratios for each household 's income is broken down, with a 75% rate being considered tolerable and low. The ideal rate, however, is above at least 95%. The small percentage of Canadians who have a readiness score that is under 75% are generally employees with a spotty employment record, or those who have not yet lived in Canada long enough for a full Old Age Security (OAS) and Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) benefit. Therefore, increasing the overall amount of household savings is going to do a lot more damage than good. This is because having savings now reduces all disposable income for the years that are spent working, while additional income for retirement that is generated will reduce the future GIS entitlement. In fact, the

The impacts that followed Stevens20 saw major changes in the Industrial Relations Act 1988, the Superannuation Guarantee Act 1992 and the liability to deduct pay as your earn installments21. Businesses started avoiding the statutory obligations owed to their employees, saving up to 17% by classifying its employees as contractors22. Consequently an entirely new industry rose, attempting to take advantage of the multi-test, structuring their business so it appeared to be one of employer to independent contractor, then employer to employee23. The consequences of this was subsequently seen

The concept of superannuation was introduced through the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) with the idea of managing, accumulating and growing assets of members so that once retirement arrives they can enjoy a higher standard of living without concern for a shortage of income when retirement occurs, they arrive in the form of pension, lump sums or both. It is further explained by Dawkins (1992) that our current retirement income system was weak and that there was a need to strengthen Australia’s national saving performance. He stated “Greater domestic saving will relax the current account constraint on Australia’s economic performance. It will mean that we can grow faster without relying so heavily on foreign saving and building up an

Modern governments promise old age security, which ensures that their citizens can fend for themselves during old age. The approaches, however, may vary from society to society. In some like The United Kingdom and Canada, government pensions are distributed to the elderly. In some others such as Singapore, the people are compelled to provide in advance for their old age dependency. Some societies have laws in place to enforce children to take care of elderly parents. For example, in Singapore, elderly parents may file in to the court if their children do not provide for them. However, there are various financial concerns about these methods. In the case of government pensions, the heavy spending of public fund on the old aged may take a toll on other areas of the nation’s development. Thus a method that works in a society may not work in another and sometimes, multiple approaches have to be taken.

The group project, Macmillan and Grunski Consulting, consists of two sections. The first part explains the case about discounted cash flow analysis, by answering the given nine questions. The second part discusses the retirement planning.

2012 is marked as a significant year for Singapore’s workforce demographics. This is the year where the first batch of baby boomers turned 65 years old (National Population and Talent Division, Prime Minister’s Office 2012). Under the Retirement and Re-employment Act (RRA) in effect since 1 January 2012, while the statutory minimum retirement age remains at 62 year old, employers are now required to offer re-employment to eligible employees who turn 62, up to

If the advanced countries the existing retirement protection system is not adjusted, it will pose a serious financial blow States.